The Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 on Saturday after Troy Johnston delivered the decisive hit in a game that opened with fireworks and ended with the home side holding on. Johnston drove in two runs with a double to center off Will Klein, giving Colorado a 4-3 lead the Dodgers could not erase.
Los Angeles had seized control almost immediately. Shohei Ohtani reached first base on the first pitch after a throwing error by Johnston, and Kyle Tucker followed with a two-run homer on the second pitch for a 2-0 lead. Colorado answered in the bottom of the first when Mickey Moniak doubled to center and TJ Rumfield singled him home, then tied things later in the second when Johnston singled, stole second, moved to third on a Brenton Doyle groundout and scored on a Kyle Karros sacrifice fly.
Dalton Rushing kept the Dodgers in front with a home run in the second inning, and Ryan Feltner and Emmet Sheehan settled in through scoreless third, fourth and fifth innings. Feltner struck out five and allowed three runs on five hits, while Sheehan was pulled after 77 pitches. Brennan Bernardino came in for Colorado with two outs and Freddie Freeman on third base in the sixth, a move that kept the game within reach before the Rockies turned to the bullpen pressure on the other side.
The game shifted again after Sheehan exited. Klein entered for Los Angeles, and Colorado quickly made him pay: Ezequiel Tovar singled and Johnston followed with the two-run double that put the Rockies ahead 4-3. It was Johnston’s 10th RBI, a sequence that underscored how fragile the Dodgers’ lead had been even after their early burst.
The result mattered because both starters arrived with ERAs that told the story of how hard each club has had to work to stay in games. Feltner’s 7.30 mark and Sheehan’s 6.60 left little margin for error, and the first inning delivered exactly that. Colorado’s comeback also fit a larger pattern: since the start of last season, the Rockies had given up 161 first-inning runs, the most in MLB, and Saturday’s opening frame looked ready to drag them down again before the bats answered.
Instead, the Rockies found the one swing they needed, and the Dodgers were left with the kind of loss that feels ordinary in the standings and irritating in the room. A two-run lead became a one-run deficit, then a final scoreline that Colorado will take and Los Angeles will spend the rest of the night replaying.